Where Have All The Dog Show Attorneys Gone

by Debra Vey Voda-Hamilton, Esq./Mediator

The sport of purebred dogs is blessed to include outstanding people. Many are professionals in a variety of disciplines. In and around the ring, on any given show weekend, you can find doctors, lawyers, teachers, plumbers, electricians and engineers to name just a few! These people show their own dogs as breeders, owners and handlers. We can do this because, as George Alston so famously said, “This is the only sport, where amateurs, with the payment of an entry, can compete along- side professionals.” Ours is a sport that equalizes the playing field regardless of education.

Attorney/dog show exhibitors, however, seem to be much less visible participants when it comes to their profession. Almost every state bar association has an animal law committee, sometimes more than one. The American Bar Association, Torts Trial & Insurance Practice Section, has an animal law committee and an equine law subcommittee. I know this because I am a member of my city and the ABA-TTIP’s animal law committees. Unfortunately, I am the lone committee member on both who champions the sport of pure- bred dogs. Where are all my legal colleagues? I know they are in/around the rings? Where are they at the state and national level?

This year I was appointed the Legislative Liaison for the Irish Setter Club of America and attended the AKC’s legislative confer- ence in North Carolina. It was my hope to meet some of my legal colleagues so we could talk and work together to solidify our pure- bred message to state and national bar associations.

There were 61 legislative liaisons in attendance. Sheila Goeff – AKC Government Relations Director, kicked off the program by asking those in attendance to be visible, tell their story, speak up and support each other and our individual breeds. Ms. Goeff and her crew provided us with a wonderful program that pre- sented an array of ways to represent the purebred dog and show world to the public.

As I looked around the room, it struck me as interesting that few, if any, of the other attendees were attorneys. Where were all the attorney/dog show people? Was I the only attorney/breeder/owner/handler representing their club at the AKC legislative conference? Now, you do not have to be an at- torney to be a legislative liaison. However, was I the only one? That couldn’t be.
To be sure, there were attorneys in attendance. Speakers Joe Wil- son from the law firm of Kelly Dry in Washington DC and Julian Prager – Canine Program Advisor to Animal and Plant Health In- spection Services gave us important legislative information during the conference. Yet, where were all my fellow attorney/dog show people? If they are not on the AKC Legislative Committee or the ABA-TTIPS animal law committee, where are they? Maybe they are on their state bar association animal law committees. I have spoken before many state bar associations and have only met two colleagues who are attorneys involved in either owning, breeding or showing purebred dogs; one in Ohio and one in Illinois.

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Posted by Alex on Sep 19 2016. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.